Books

Authors & Illustrators

Blogs

Events

Matthew Quick on the best films of 2012

Matthew Quick's novel The Silver Linings Playbookwas published by Picador in 2009. Wonderful little book that it is, it has now been made into the film Silver Linings Playbook. We at Picador haven't been able to move in London recently without hearing about the film starring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro, so we're delighted that Matthew has offered up his thoughts on the films of 2012, and more besides.

Matthew Quick's novel The Silver Linings Playbookwas published by Picador in 2009. Wonderful little book that it is, it has now been made into the film Silver Linings Playbook. We at Picador haven't been able to move in London recently without hearing about the film starring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro, so we're delighted that Matthew has offered up his thoughts on the films of 2012, and more besides.

What is your most powerful memory of the year?

The Philadelphia premiere of Silver Linings Playbook. Mayor Nutter introduced David O. Russell and me to a crowd of 800 that included my ninety-year-old grandmother. My grandfather died last March and on his deathbed, he said, "I wish I saw Matthew's movie." My grandmother didn’t like all the cursing the actors did, but she loved the dancing and seeing her grandson’s name on the big screen.

I worked as a industrial flat roofer, mopping out buckets of boiling tar in hundred degree heat and humidity. Once when I was roofing, a radio host said that animal rights activists had declared it too hot for horses to give tourists carriage rides in the city streets, which were farther from the sun and therefore much cooler than our high roof. The horses were given the day off. Our foreman laughed and said, "Back to work." Straight out of a Dickens novel.

What gives you nightmares?

I have anxiety dreams during which I am a teacher incapable of controlling his classroom. Was never a problem in real life, back when I was teaching. Psychoanalyze that!